Over the past decades, Africa has started its way to become a major emerging market. For companies from Africa and all over the world, this creates substantial opportunities. Unfortunately, the German “Mittelstand”, the backbone of its economy and proud ambassadors of the “Made in Germany” logo all around the world, still lacks behind with its engagement on the continent. Just over 1.000 companies from Germany are active in Africa. Reasons are manifold, but one is especially widespread and within our abilities to tackle: the difficulty of German “Mittelstand” firms to develop a structured approach to market entry strategies into Africa.

As many of these firms have never done business on the continent, questions such as “Where should we start?”, “Which countries do we need to consider?”, “What are the opportunities and risks of certain countries?” are key hurdles at an early stage of the market entry. To alleviate this challenge, BRS Institute of Bonn-Rhein-Sieg University of Applied Sciences, together with africon GmbH have decided to develop a country index designed specifically tailored to the unique requirements of “Mittelstand” firms. The index, named the “BRS Market Attractiveness Index SME Africa”, gives companies a comprehensive overview on African markets on various levels of detail to create awareness of opportunities, risks and potential starting points for a market entry. It thereby provides a vital starting point, from which a structured market entry strategy can be developed.

If this index interests you, come and join us at this year´s conference “Universities, Entrepreneurship and Enterprise Development in Africa” in Sankt Augustin, Germany, on from 13th to 14th September. Apart from a formal signing ceremony and the welcoming of further exciting project partners to the index team, the event will feature a speech on the African FMCG markets by africon CEO Marc Zander, as well as a range of other interesting agenda points.